“Out Of The Mouths...”

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31061, 17 May 1966, Page 16

“Out Of The Mouths...”

Newspapers have become accustomed to being “ surveyed ” by organisations of varying competence and authority, and resigned to the findings of inquiries remarkable for nothing so much as their superficiality and cursoriness. It was with pleasure, therefore, that we noticed in “ Inkling ”, the first issue of a separate literary magazine by the Kaikorai Valley High School, the results of a survey of the New Zealand press which clearly could not be faulted on either ground. Here, in a 19-page article, with 10 massive but clear and informative tables, was set out an inch-by-inch classification of the contents of every one of New Zealand’s 41 daily newspapers for the week of September 17 to 23, 1965. Our pleasure increased as we followed the analysis of these tables (together with a very well-informed account of the history and present structure of the newspaper industry in New Zealand) to the conclusions drawn about the New Zealand press as a whole (with which we would disagree only on points of detail) and a “ top ten ” rating of New Zealand newspapers (which modesty forbids our particularising). This was a task of considerable magnitude for voung people. It was done by the pupils of Form SAI, assisted by Form 6B pupils in preparing the tables; and we "can well believe that it made heavy demands on their leisure, if not their study time, in the two months given up to it. We are equally sure that it was a valuable lesson in logic and in the orderly handling of a mass of detail. In an introductory note the supervising master, Mr C. L. Croot, suggests that this is the first “ systematic and inten- “ sive study of the press of New Zealand and we know of no other that approaches it for thoroughness. It could well be a model for professional organisations seeking to establish the nature of the New Zealand press rather than to express preconceived ideas about it. The young surveyors of Dunedin explicitly disavow any claim to judge quality; they are concerned only to show what the New Zealand newspapers offer their readers for 3d or, more often now, 4d. Interpretation of the survey, of course, is a more subjective matter: and many, no doubt, will ascribe a certain amount of southern bias to Mr Croot’s interpretation of the figures amassed and tabulated by his pupils.

Not the least interesting part of the exercise was a statistical comparison (limited to a single mid-week issue) of the contents of “ New Zealand’s leading “paper” with those of leading (and world-famous) newspapers in Britain, Australia, the United States, France, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, and Italy under the headings of foreign, national, and local news, business, sport, and comment. Most New Zealanders would be surprised to find how well their representative fares in this distinguished company: more column-inches of news than all but three of its 12 overseas counterparts, more foreign and national news than eight of them; more local news than all but the “New York Times”; more business news than four; more sport than all but the “ Sydney Mom“ing Herald”, more “comment” than three. It is a pity the surveyors did not compare the selling prices of these papers. New Zealanders might have found even more reason to be gratified.